“Our message all along has been clear and consistent: Massachusetts will only adopt the Common Core standards if they match or surpass our current expectations for students,” said Education Secretary Paul Reville. “Even if the Board votes to adopt, the Commonwealth would still maintain the opportunity to add to the standards, personalize them to Massachusetts and build them out in a way that will allow our educators to propel our students to the next level of learning.”

“Our goal is to provide every student in the Commonwealth with the best possible schools, teachers, curriculum and opportunities they need to be successful in school, college, careers and in life,” Chester said. “We will take the time to evaluate the Common Core Standards before making a decision, and if we ultimately find that the final product represents a decline in expectations from our state standards, we will not hesitate to walk away.”

The Common Core State Standards and survey can be viewed by clicking here

The 495/MetroWest Development Compact is aimed at ranking infrastructure improvements for the region as a whole, rather than tackling projects piecemeal.

Greg Bialecki, the state secretary of housing and economic development, and Jeff Mullan, secretary of transportation, announced the compact at the 495/MetroWest Partnership's annual conference.

Bialecki said the compact will help create a common "strategic action plan" for all of the agencies involved to get behind, rather than "creating a laundry list of changes to infrastructure that need to be made."

On June 24, 2010, the Legislature approved the Conference Committee’s version of the FY2011 budget.The Division of Local Services has posted updated local aid estimates based on the Conference Committee budget recommendations at the link below:

Though the estimates are substantially the same as previous estimates, the Conference Committee proposal relies on reimbursements from the Federal Medical Assistance Program (FMAP) to fund part of certain appropriations.

Outside section 190 restricts the expenditure of FMAP funded appropriations until receipt of those funds is certain.

Cherry sheet estimates for the State-owned Land, Regional School Transportation and Local Share of Racing Taxes programs reflect the portion of the appropriation funded only from the general fund.

If the FMAP funding becomes certain by tax rate setting time, FY2011 cherry sheets will be amended.

If you are looking for work and need a good opportunity to network, the workshop today at the Hopkinton Networking Group meetingFriday, June 1125is one to catch.

Someone you may know will be facilitating two engaging, productive, and fun activities. If you have the time, you could not spend it any better than networking at Hopkinton today!When:10:00 AM - NoonWhere: St John's Evangelist Parish Center, 20 Church St, HopkintonCost:$1

The details on the workshops as published to the Acton Networking Group listserv:

Hello Everyone,

The agenda for this Friday's Hopkinton Networkers Group (HNG) meeting will be featured by workshop activities. The facilitator for this week will be Steve Sherlock. We will devote the first hour, from 10 to 11 AM to the following agenda: Welcome, Landings, Announcements, New Member Intros, and Needs & Leads. Please arrive early, so we can make every effort to start on time. In the second hour, we will conduct a workshop with various activities. Here is how it will be done:

Workshop Activities:

Discovery...Re-Discovery...and FUN:

The handout provided has a 7 x 4 matrix of boxes, i.e., 28 in all, where each box contains an open-ended statement that when completed will yield a more composite picture of the person.

Transferrable Skills:

Bring your resume. We will break out into small groups and use the classrooms. After the resume is reviewed, a discussion will take place to determine what transferrable skills your résumé displays.

Name Associations (if time permits):

Think of a relationship of your name with something else that others could relate with and could remember your name. For example, the association I use is the breakfast serial Rice Krispies whereby removing the last letter "s" and replacing it with a "n" spells my last name. You will be quite surprised how easily it will be to remember names afterwards.

It is a family tradition to walk to the local ice cream parlor at the end of the school year for a supper of ice cream.

The local choice for us is the Spruce Pond Creamery on King St in Franklin, MA. The sign was recently re-freshed to include the fact that they now offer beer and wine in the restaurant. Their flatbread sandwiches and pizza are very good. Adding the beer and wine option for the accompaniment is good.

Their ice cream take out windows are where we headed on Tuesday.

Ice cream for supper? Why not?

A banana split provides multiple food groups (dairy, nuts, and fruit) with more than enough calories for a meal.

It was good! We only do this at the end of the school year so this is a real treat and not a regular staple of our diet.

They may be on summer vacation, but Meghan and Shannon Morrison are already getting into the holiday spirit.

The sisters were only 9 and 7 at the time their mother, Susan, was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. And though Christmas that year fell on one of Susan's "bad weeks," she was able to spend the holiday home with her family.

Recognizing their own good fortune in being able to see their mother at Christmas, the sisters have dedicated themselves to raising money to buy holiday decorations for the AstraZeneca Hope Lodge Center in Boston - an outpatient care facility that serves as a home away from home for cancer patients.

'If we had data on all 351 Massachusetts municipalities, the exact impact of the simulated override might vary, but the overall results would be similar. By not passing the override, homeowners in Hull would save on their property taxes over the next five years. But for every tax dollar they save, Hull homeowners would likely forfeit close to four dollars in home value when they sell their homes.

Before pulling the lever in the voting booth, residents across Massachusetts considering a Prop 2 override to help fund local schools might be wise to consider whether a no vote is being penny-wise but pound-foolish.'

Based upon the discussion around the article in theMilford Daily News on Tuesday 6/15/10, a new poll question has been added to the center column of Franklin Matters.The question asks if the override question had been phrased differently would the results have been different. In particular the question is:

If the override was split into 2 separate questions, would you have approved the school override? Q1 - $2.1 million for schools Q2 - $900K for roads/the town

Officials estimate businesses could spend $6,000 to $120,000 per acre on systems used to redirect stormwater.

"The benefits (of cleaning the river) are grossly overstated and do not justify the expense," said Franklin Director of Public Works Robert Cantoreggi.

Cantoreggi argued that legislation should be sought to control sources of the phosphorous, such as lawn fertilizer. He also said "social research" should be conducted to see if there is support within the communities to fund phosphorous control systems.

eight Latin teachers hired in last several years, great turnoverone resigned, another indicated intention to resignleave request from a HS Latin teacher (maternity leave)currently employing .5 of a Latin teacher, looking for 5 Latin teachers

3 were fully qualified and will be bringing in for interviewsmost of the others h ad been interviewed before and were not hireddecision was to proceed with reducing Latin and alleviating part of the problemthe middle school teachers will move to the high school (they are all certified K-12)

Memo to committee May 12thMemo on June 4thDiscussion on June 8thand proceeded accordingly

We will be continuing to look at Foreign language overall to see what we are offering, what we could offermiddle school students get 65 sessions during their school year, not enoughwe will be pursuing the study more fully in the coming year and coming up with a plan

Mullen - School system suffering the death of a thousand cutsmade a philosophical decision to go with Latin, we are not making a pragmatic decision to remove it from the middle schoolMy youngest daughter would have taken French but French got cut, so she took LatinMost communities were offering only one language, Spanish

Michelle Kingsland-Smithout of 32 districts, 4 of the 32 had an elementary program, only 7 had Latin, and in the middle school

Cafasso - 177 schools teach Latin, 32 middle schools, 140 schools within the state, if that helpsinfo from the DESE was obtained today and would be forwarded to the Committee and to the administration

Sabolinski - having a license doesn't make a teacher effective, it is step oneThere is a way to equalize class size and class instruction; some of the Latin classes were smaller due to less demand, some of the Spanish classes were larger due to demand.

Sabolinski - had intentions to get to three times a week for foreign language but cut it to 2 due to budget, the opportunity to focus on the MetroWest health results (BMI, bullying,etc.) we have requirements to implement with no resources to do so. The current program wasn't enough.

Kingsland-Smith - districts will be required to provide the curriculum in cyber-bullying, they have specifically said curriculum, not a separate program,

Sabolinski - we (administration team) are going tomorrow to a workshop to review what they are providing

Cafasso - (pressing issue on an administration decision to go this way and replace the language program with the health effort)

Perry - in terms of recruiting teachers, it is not a selling point,

Cafasso - there are a lot of kids who are impacted by this, we never asked them, we just announced it on the last day of school. What is the plan to help the students with one year left?

Perry - we have talked about summer classes, we have talked about online learning, we have talked about a traveling roll. We only have one person and a class size of sixty and you can't collapse the two sections

Wittcoff - We are really here because we lost these Latin teachers, in Math and Science the nation has programs to foster growth in those areas, they are not doing that for Latin. The pragmatic decision is to change the offerings

Perry - what could it look like? all the schools could offer Spanish, with an integration of the subject into other subject areas.

Bergen - The students who had a chance to try the foundation language, Latin, and then pick up one later. It becomes exploratory because we no longer have the intensive program. Language moved off the core subjects unless we could keep the hour. Can we add an hour to the school day? I don't see that happening.

Kingsland-Smith - due to AYP issues, we focused on the core and made progress. It was at the expense of the language.

Sabolinksi - we are looking at other options, after school clubs, etc. Not this summer though.

Cafasso - to hear tonight that language is no longer a core subject for this district is concerning.

Kingsland-Smith - when we think about a core, a core is an everyday item, the state has defined those four frameworks (math, science, social studies, and ELA) language was once but is no longer.

Douglas - I'd like to see if we could do something for those students that have already have had two years

quick survey of the schools, about 80 at Remington, 40-50 at Keller, and another 70 at Horace Mann. It would be one full-time but two bodies due to the schedule issue amongst the three middle schools

Perry - studies from the 1980 show shortages on the Latin teachers, it is not a new problem

Glynn - have you pursued other languages to compliment Spanish?

Sabolinski - we have not been able to find qualified teachers? we have looked for Mandarin Chinese and Arabic back even when Mr Lucas was here we were exploring programs to bring teachers here

Glynn - have you found anything on the e-learning front, perhaps were several schools could combine? perhaps a rhetorical question

Roy - I have no doubt that we are all desiring to see Latin at the middle schools. As a practicality, I don't think we can. I don't think we are second guessing the plan or decision. I support that wholeheartedly, looking at Mr Cafasso's suggestion to examine the whole language program. Language is a hot topic in my household. NoChildLeftBehind is what defines a core subject, we are not loosing foreign language in Franklin, we are loosing one subject matter. We are in the middle of a set of tough choices. The community spoke and said no, so we need to move accordingly to make tough choices.

Bergen - we have no general music left due to the budget, and elementary music is lost

Mullen - I want to follow up on what is left for those kids who would be going into 8th grade.

Sabolinski - we did not go at this capriciously, we sat down with Kristy Yankee, the language lead who had actually received the student when we did this with French the last time. It just did not work, it was not an effective instructional model for students. Her plea was to shore up the high school program. We are excited to be offer high school AP Latin for the firs time.

Light - what was the impact on French when we stopped French at the middle schools? We don't have enough French teachers at the high school. In terms of pure numbers, we don't see an impact. We are offering French AP next year due to enough demand for it. How do you come up with a good comprehensive 4-year program? We are looking to keep the programs competitive. How do we help them come into Latin (after having spent sometime in another language)? Early acquisition skills are what we are looking at.

Mullen - We are in this unenviable position of cutting and we hear you of expanding something, making the best of a lousy situation.

Glynn - don't leave the student out?Roy - yes, we will let the audience have their say when the committee had completed their questions

Sabolinksi - we have provided a lot of data in our last foreign language report, what else are you looking for?

Cafasso - it has been a discussion for years, as well as a goal of the superintendent to improve the foreign language program. I'd like to see the plan that I have been asking for for five years?

Sabolinski - I have the plan, we have reviewed the plan, but we are not able to fund it.

Cafasso - You have made it clear tonight that this is not a budget decision, this is another decision. The Committee is supposed to set the guidelines. I don't believe we have done so. It wasn't ever clear that this was a decision, it was just a proposal. It's done. I'd like to see it come back in some formative way. I'd like to see something be done for the students who spent two years studying and won't be getting into Peter's program yet.

Rohrbach - This is the result of budget constraints and unfunded mandates. Thank you for coming here and providing your thoughts.

Texeira - now a sophomore at Northeastern. Youth soccer coach with youth soccer leagues, head through his soccer players, to confirm what has been said tonight. Kids have talked to me in Spanish, French and Latin. Tested out English at college due to his preparation from Franklin HS. I think it would be a big mistake to cut Latin. I understand you having trouble finding teachers.

Sabolinski - we have been aggressive in pursuing teachers for the past five years.

Texeira - I wanted to stress the importance of Latin. It impacted almost everything else we did. It is much better to have students and graduated students with a background in languages is better than being less than competent and capable in languages. Most of the languages are derived from Latin.

b. Interim Principal HMMSMichael Levine - interim principal, hired todayexperienced retired principal, will keep the wonderful things that Dr Bergen has startedhe will be scheduled to come to the School Committee sometime during the summer

Cafasso - hat is the gender breakdown at HM?Bergen - approx. 50/50.

Cafasso - Why an interim for this position?Sabolinski - we were not able to find a suitable candidate in the initial search process earlier this year. We started late, did have an number of applicants but weren't able to move quickly enough, a good number ended up going elsewhere. We intend to start again in August.

Cafasso - Curious on your philosophy about the male/female issues being addressed at the middle schoolsSabolinski - one of the new counselors coming to Horace Mann is a female. Wittcoff - there should be a team approach, some students will connect with one or another.

Trahan - I think it is on the student to have a level of confidence with who they can go to

Douglas - I commend you on not hiring a permanent too quickly

Sabolinski - thank you

Roy - general theme tonight has been to go attract the best and brightest

b. I recommend acceptance of a check for $1,000.00 from Natalie Brunelli for the John A. Brunelli Memorial Scholarship at FHS. recommend to accept, passed 7-0c. I recommend acceptance of a check for $50.00 from Elaine Costello for the Class of 1960 Scholarship at FHS. recommend to accept, passed 7-0d. I recommend acceptance of a check for $50.00 from Mary Ann Bertone for the Class of 1960 Scholarship at FHS. recommend to accept, passed 7-0e. I recommend acceptance of a check for $1,000.00 from the Franklin Country Club for the Franklin Country Club Scholarship / Hall of Fame Award at FHS. recommend to accept, passed 7-0f. I recommend acceptance of a check for $1,700.00 from the Shayne Cabino Foundation for the Let Us Never Forget LCPL Shayne Matthew Cabino Memorial Scholarship at FHS. recommend to accept, passed 7-0g. I recommend acceptance of a check for $100.00 from Lonnie Grillo for the Class of 1960 Scholarship at FHS. recommend to accept, passed 7-0h. I recommend acceptance of a check for $2,000.00 from Franklin Youth Lacrosse for a Space Camp field trip for Horace Mann students. recommend to accept, passed 7-0i. I recommend acceptance of 3 checks for $50.00 each from Mr. Lima, Mr. Folan and Mr. DiLorenzo for the FHS Scholarship Fund. recommend to accept, passed 7-0j. I recommend acceptance of a check for $3,000.00 from the Horace Mann PCC for in-house enrichment. recommend to accept, passed 7-0k. I recommend approval of an increase in athletic fees to $450 for Hockey, $175 for Track, and $200 for all other sports. recommend to accept, passed 6-1 (Glynn no)

l. I recommend approval of an increase in extracurricular fees to $50 annually. recommend to accept, passed 7-0m. I recommend adoption of the FY11 budget of $49,875,000 as detailed. recommend to accept, passed 6-1 (Cafasso no)

Budget discussion
The foreign language changes are budget neutral. The only significant changes were to the reduction of the collaborative services where we believe we can insource those positions and save money.

There are reductions in the seven elementary and eight middle school teachers, the retirees are factored in in that others were able to keep their positions.

BICO - (BiCounty collaborative) occupational therapy, speech therapists, we believe can hire at a savings, we have hired six OT thus far, we will still need some services contracted out but we can see savings this way. The savings thus far are about $58,000 or the equivalent of another position. The people we have will be working on our schedule.

15 teachers
3 buses cutWorking to shorten the elementary day
If the shortened day does not pass the teachers union, it would require 3 additional teacher positions to balance the budget.

Did discuss a family cap, did not calculate that in the budget, therefore there would be a recommendation to not have a family cap. (hence, all families would pay full for all students in the family).

Pandora's role shifting, one to have Brad Sidwell try and generate some additional revenue
two, to try and build some additional strategic alliances

Cafasso - just because we did not plan this well does not mean we should not consider a family cap. I would consider it but I haven't had access to the budget dollars to see what difference it would make.

Students with free and reduced lunch are exempt from paying the fees
If families are having problems with the fee structure, the family should reach out to the principals and Brad Sidwell who can work out an accommodation.